Jak 3 launches into its game without any preamble. Jak is abandoned in the desert, with Daxter hanging out with him. You all collapse and flash back to the city being attacked by metalheads, and the council blaming you. Luckily the "fremen" (Dune, anyone?) show up to rescue you, and take you off to their secret hideaway.

Your pal Pecker is now the advisor to the desert king. You are tossed into the arena to fight, and in essence to learn your keys :) You start out by walking into the light and collecting the tokens. You'll get explicit commands about how to do each new task, to learn your keys.

If you fall into the lava you die, but again, this is just about key learning. Just start again and try again, to practice your skills. When you do get to the end, you're now told to challenge the living. Yes, the camera sucks - but just get used to how it moves and work around it. Killing off the enemies is pretty simple.

When you are done, you earn your first battle amulet. You're told that winning two more battle amulets (which takes the entire rest of the game) will earn you full citizenship. You get a gate pass, so you can go in and out of the city. You also get your first gun modification.

Jump over to the throne area, and bash away at things. Play with your 'secrets' area to see how to buy and turn on/off your secrets. You're now ready to explore the city!